Ysenda Maxtone Graham on clergy holidays and the significance of the school summer break

On this week’s podcast, Ed Thornton talks to Ysenda Maxtone Graham about her new book, British Summer Time Begins: The school summer holidays 1930-1980 (Little, Brown) (Church Times Bookshop £17.10). Ysenda has written a piece on holidays and churchgoing for this week’s Church Times. They discuss Christian house-swaps and clergy holidays, as well as how much the school summer holiday experience has changed. “A typical day out meant going somewhere in the fresh air that didn’t charge for entry. . . I like to think that in this coronavirus time we’ve sort of relearned that — the joy of non-materialism.” British Summer Time Begins is reviewed here by the Ven. Dr Lyle Dennen. “This book would be an interesting read during any summer, to see how the British had been, how children were treated, what people’s values and lifestyles were, the relationship between the sexes, how the class structure functioned, and what people’s hopes and fears were. Read in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, it has a gripping, questioning, and slightly surreal quality.” Podcast edited by Serena Long. Get the Church Times delivered for 10 weeks for just £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/10-weeks